Why can’t i find out the status of my Xbox 360 repair online? Why do i have to call the support number and talk to a live person to do that? I assume, most likely correctly, that most Xbox 360 owners have internet access. By enabling Xbox 360 owners the ability to check the status of their console online, it will actually save Microsoft a lot of money by freeing up the phone support personnel to deal just with troubleshooting issues. I expect the following things that you should be able to find online about your console:
- To track the delivery of the console to and from the repair center. Since the UPS shipping label, including the tracking number, for shiping the console back to Microsoft is included in the box, this tracking number is already known to MS. Why do i have to provide this tracking number to the support personnel when obviously it is already known to them?
- To check the status of the repair. Has the console arrived at the repair center? Has the problem identified by the console owner been replicated? What repair work is done to the console? When is the ETA for the completion of the repair? When is the console expected to be shipped back to its owner?
As recent as 6 months ago, the Xbox 360 support website contained a live online support via a chat window. The number of things that chat support could do was very limited. Other than giving out some basic troubleshooting steps, it was not able to do much except referring the users to contact the Xbox support via phone. Why not expand on the live chat support? For some unknown reason, the support website no longer has the option for a live chat support.
Update 1/7/2006
If you provide your email address to Xbox support, they do send you an email when they are shipping your console back to you.
Update 8/6/2007
After more than one and a half years since i contacted Microsoft support for my Xbox 360, Microsoft has finally set up a website to do what i told them that they should have long ago.
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Nathan’s Famous hot dog is hands down my favorite hot dog. Nathan’s Famous is the sponsor of the yearly Fourth of July International Hot Dog eating contest, which for the past six years, has been won by this eating machine Takeru Kobayashi of Japan. I first experienced Nathan’s hot dog when i was traveling to Baltimore to work a few years ago. Slightly longer and narrower than most of the hot dogs, the taste and the texture is amazing. Especially when the skin of the hot dog is grilled just to the right crispiness, it’s really like a slice of heaven. I have not found a better hot dog since then, though the spicy hot dog i had at a few other airports was a close second.
There is a Nathan’s Famous restaurant at Concourse C of the Baltimore/Washington International Airport. Everytime i took a departing flight out of BWI, i would get two hot dogs. Concourse C used to serve Northwest Airlines but in recent years, it was moved to Concourse D and has remained there since. What did that meant to me? Since i was traveling mostly on Northwest Airlines to BWI, it meant i was missing out on my favorite hot dog, since Concourse C and Concourse D were not connected. Imagine my utter disappointment when i realized that Northwest Airlines was no longer located in the same concourse as Nathan’s Famous. So what i did was i would go through the security to get to Concourse C, even though my boarding pass clearly indicated it was for Concourse D. Of course, i had to explain to the TSA guys that i was going to Nathan’s for my hot dogs. After grabbing four hot dogs, i would get out of Concourse C and go through the security checkpoint again, to Concourse D.
Nathan’s Famous hot dog seems to be just an East Coast thing. I couldn’t seem to find any Nathan’s Famous hot dog in the state of Washington. Supposedly, some Costco warehouses are supposed to be carrying them, but so far i have not found them in any Costcos around here. At one point, i was seriously considering ordering from its website but the price, especially the shipping and handling cost pretty much snuffed out my craving. On the Nathan’s website, 3-pack hot dogs (6 hot dogs in each pack) sells for $14.99 and the 2nd day USPS delivery costs a whopping $38.55. That means each hot dog will cost me almost $3. Fortunately, i discovered a location in the Seattle area that carries my favorite dog. At the Lincoln Square movie theater in Bellevue, each Nathan’s hot dog (including the bun of course) goes for $3.50. Now you know which movie theater i will go to whenever i want to watch something on the big screen 
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There is no better way for me to end the year 2006 than spending two days in a row snowboarding in the British Columbia coastal mountains. Since i was not willing to cough up $600 a night of accomodation at Whistler in order to spend both days there, and also because i wanted to take my ex-roommate Boon and his wife Shaohong along with me, i decided to only spend a day at Whistler.
The first day, i drove up to Cypress Mountain, a ski resort about 30 minutes from Vancouver. Cypress Mountain is like the mini-me version of Whistler/Blackcomb - it has two mountains side by side (Black Mountain and Strachan Mountain), like Whistler and Blackcomb. As soon as i arrived at Cypress Mountain, it started snowing quite heavily. By the time i got back to my car about 5 hours later, there was 3 inches of snow on my car. Cypress Mountain has some decent runs and the lift ticket during the peak season is $50 for the full day. In comparison, a regular full day lift ticket costs $81 at Whistler!
View of downtown Vancouver and Stanley Park from the scenic point near Cypress Mountain:
View from the scenic point near Cypress Mountain:
The second day, i took Boon and Shaohong to Whistler. It took us about one and a half hours to get to Whistler from Boon’s apartment on Beach Ave in Vancouver - there was very little traffic and the roads were clear. Because of our late departure, Boon and Shaohong missed the start time for the full day beginner lesson so i ended up teaching them, especially Shaohong, for about an hour. Man, i really sucked in giving lesson to beginner. I was especially impatient because i only had about 4 hours max to ride since the lifts stopped operating at 1500 and we didn’t arrive until after 1100. Other than a few icy patches, the snow was good from top to bottom on Whistler. The last run of the day, i rode all the way down from the top of the Harmony chair. I think i was one of the last few persons, if not the last, to ride down from Harmony. I didn’t do as many runs as i originally wanted but the almost non-stop (i stopped once to call Boon on the walkie talkie) 30-minute last run made up for it.
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